Arrival
by HedyLamarr
Summary: Companion piece to Unexpected, from Barney's POV. The security guard turned undercover operative remembers his friend, and wonders how the intervening years will have changed him.
1. Workmates

Arrival

Despite the generally grim nature of City 17, Barney enjoyed walking through the streets early in the morning. There were no civilians and few cops around, and the grey pre-dawn light did a good job of hiding the worst of the damage and decay. As he drew closer to the central muster point, he began to see other people, dressed as he was in drab denim overalls. Despite the fact that Barney was naturally gregarious, he did not greet the others, and they likewise remained silent, avoiding eye contact. People who had cracked and joined civil protection didn't want anyone to know about it, even their fellow cops. Barney wasn't sure whether it was the threat of violence they feared more, or simply the shame. Either way he was glad of it, as it made his job of infiltration that much easier.

After 15 minutes' walk he reached a sinisterly anonymous building located near the river. Barney went to his locker and put on his black uniform, heavy leather boots, and respirator mask. He noticed the people surrounding him change immediately as they donned their own uniforms. Instead of being vulnerable individuals who had to hide their identities from the people at home, now they were the ones with the power to make the ordinary citizens cringe. He noticed the change in himself as well. He despised himself for it, but it happened all the same.

Normally he relaxed a little when he put the mask on, as it made him indistinguishable from the rest of the cops. Today, however, he remained as tense as ever. Today was the day that could make all the terrible stuff he'd had to do since he joined CP worthwhile. It was vital that he be assigned to patrol the area around the train station. Normally that was his area, which was why the decision had been reached to send Gordon by train, but CP could decide to change the rota without warning, and had done so in the past. But when he reached the bulletin board he was in luck, and he felt a spring in his step as he strode through the iron gates into the centre of City 17, with the (disturbingly sexy, in his opinion) Voice of the Overwatch purring "Patrol, observe, suppress" into his ear as he went.

Barney was excited about seeing Gordon again. The scientist had become one of the most unlikely but also one of the best friends he'd ever had. The day he met Gordon he had been working on a task that took him all morning and spilled over into lunch, which meant that he was too late to eat with his usual buddies from security. He grabbed a sandwich and a coke, and looked out across the dining hall. Gordon Freeman was sitting alone at a table in the corner, toying with a coffee. Barney knew that Freeman was fairly new at Black Mesa, but so far he had attracted no attention from the security personnel (aside from a few comments about the length of his hair), and little was known about him. He was also at least a decade younger than the rest of the scientists working at Black Mesa, and Barney thought he looked rather miserable. He took pity on him and headed over.

"Is this seat taken?"

Freeman made what was surely meant to be a causal gesture at the empty chair opposite, the effect of which was spoiled by the fact that he promptly knocked his coffee cup over. He looked away as though he were looking for a napkin to mop up the spill, but Barney could see the blush gradually spreading from his cheeks to the tips of his ears. Barney was astonished that a man who looked roughly his own age could be so awkward. Still, at least he wasn't a snob like some of the scientists, who wouldn't have been seen dead eating lunch with security. Barney gave him a reassuring smile.

"So you're the new guy, huh?"

"Yeah, I… guess." It wasn't promising, but Barney persisted.

"What were you doing before you got here?"

"Uh, I was doing post-doc work… at Innsbruck, that's in – "

"Austria, sure. I spent a few days there, back when I was working my way round Europe. Boy, those Austrian girls. Talk about ice maidens!"

Freeman grinned at that, and Barney thought it changed his whole demeanor, as he seemed to relax into the conversation. They swapped tales of traveling, and Barney found that Gordon had visited nearly as many countries as he had, although seemingly he had spent most of his time in labs and lecture halls, while Barney had worked in casual industries such as construction, kitchen work and indeed security, staying in one place until he got bored, then moving on. Gordon was amused and astonished at Barney's tales, many of which ended with his being ejected from bars, and occasionally the country.

Compared to Barney, Gordon spoke little, but Barney found out that he had started at MIT when he was 17, the same year his dad had died of a heart attack. Gordon got up and left the table rather abruptly after that, leaving Barney feeling strangely embarrassed.

He bumped into the scientist again a few days later, above ground. Barney was out for a training run with some of his shift. They all overtook Gordon as he struggled along the path. Barney dropped back to keep pace with him. He could tell he was finding the run far easier than Gordon, and he knew that Gordon knew it too. But Gordon kept going, with grim determination on his face. It was a competition, although neither of them would acknowledge it. Eventually though, Barney responded to the catcalls of his workmates, and accelerated away.

Gordon was in the locker room when he returned, filling in a notebook with an orange cover. "Watcha doing?" he asked Gordon affably, and Gordon showed him.

Barney was intrigued by the Black Mesa Hazard Suit Training Guidelines. Anomalous Materials was the department that attracted the most interest from the non-scientists, and was the subject of frequent conspiracy theories and jokes, although Barney always felt the jokes were slightly too forced, as if people were whistling in the dark. Gordon, however, just seemed excited by the prospect of finally working at the top of his field. Barney wondered what it must be like to realise an ambition you'd had ever since you were a child. Or even just to have an ambition for that long. It wasn't something he was familiar with. The idea of opening Calhoun's had only coalesced in his mind a couple of years ago, it was one of the reasons he'd taken the job at Black Mesa: the pay was pretty good, and they provided accomodation, so he could save up even more of his wages, although it never seemed to be enough.

On the other hand, he did have upper body strength, and the numbers Gordon had scribbled down in his training diary were seriously low.

They became training partners. Gordon would update Barney on the latest developments with his nephew Lucas as they ran. Then Barney would give Gordon some friendly abuse for his awful choice of music to work out to, before they spotted for each other while they were lifting weights. Gordon put on some muscle, and proved to be a natural at running. Eventually, they had begun hanging out together. Barney shared stories of driving his van through the New Mexico desert at night; trying to convince Gordon of all the unearthly things he'd seen. Gordon taught Barney about roof- and tunnel-hacking. And there was beer.


	2. Friends

As Barney got to know Gordon, he'd realised how his anxiety about relating to others made him come off a lot more aloof and arrogant than if he'd just been himself. The irony of it was that Gordon was actually a good guy, very thoughtful towards his friends, and with a surprisingly goofy sense of humour. Sure, he was pretty weird at times, but then what scientist wasn't?

Even once they became friends, Gordon was always the quiet type, but Barney talked enough for both of them, and he got to know things about Gordon that he suspected no one else knew. His friend was usually relatively restrained when they went drinking, but one evening Barney found him in his room, so drunk he could barely speak, and it hadn't even been 10pm. Barney prised the story out of him – it was the anniversary of his father's death.

Gordon's father had been a mechanic, and he grew up playing with the parts lying around his workshop. Aged six, he had wired the motion sensor from an automatic garage door to a tennis ball launcher from the local country club, added butane as a power source, and proceeded to knock out his father with the resulting weapon as he came home from work. 15 minutes after giving his son a spanking so severe he still felt it 20 years later, his father had called Gordon down and asked him how he had done it. The next day, he was enrolled in a programme for gifted children; but such things cost money, and Gordon saw less and less of his father, until the day a letter arrived from MIT, offering to pay his tuition. A month after he started college, his father died of a coronary. Barney didn't consider himself a touchy-feely kind of guy, but it was pretty obvious what was going through Gordon's mind as he reached for another beer. There was nothing he could do except join him, and together they toasted the memory of Gordon's dad. Gordon looked at Barney expectantly, as if waiting for a counter-toast, but Barney just shrugged, and drank again to Freeman Senior. They finished the crate, and then Barney put Gordon to bed, with a glass of water and a strategically placed bucket.

The next day, as he was patrolling the corridors, Barney snuck a peek through the window of Gordon's lab. His friend was perched on the edge of his desk. Gordon had cut off his ponytail, and he ran his fingers through his now short, straggly hair as he stared at an empty whiteboard with an expression of hungover determination. Barney had just shaken his head and continued his rounds. At least Gordon's parents had been encouraging, rather than driving him to run as far away as he could in the opposite direction and never mind school. The hair thing was weird, though, and he wondered whether this was going to be some sort of annual ritual thing. As it happened, he'd never got the opportunity to find out.

As he arrived at the train station and began strolling the perimeter, Barney shook his head, reflecting on how abruptly he'd gone from being a slightly resentful security guard worried that life was passing him by, to a respected commander in the Resistance, a trusted lieutenant of Eli and Isaac and the others. Because the fact was, you had to be good to have made it out of Black Mesa on the day of the cascade, and you had to be tough to have survived the intervening years, and if you managed both, then those were all the qualifications you needed. Gordon Freeman had evidently also done both. Yet he had been a part of the experiment that started this whole mess, and although there was no way Gordon had known of Scumbucket Breen's plans, Barney was willing to bet that his friend was tormenting himself with guilt. Surely that explained why he'd stayed away so long.

He wondered idly what Gordon looked like now. Ponytail or no ponytail? Before he had joined CP he regularly took a squad of rebels and swept the surrounding area beyond City 17, looking for supplies and potentially useful locations. Very occasionally, they had encountered survivors who had somehow managed to evade the Combine's grasp. They usually looked haggard and old beyond their time, with a fanatical gleam in their eyes. That was the kind of thing Barney was expecting. He knew he was no oil painting himself; the stress of occupation had put lines on his face and sent his hair prematurely grey. At least rationing had gotten rid of the paunch that had been threatening to set in, so Gordon wouldn't be able to tease him with that. Barney couldn't wait to have him back. Not only was the man his best friend; but with him around, Eli had been hinting that a direct strike at the Combine might finally be on the cards. Barney couldn't get any details out of him, but presumably Gordon had brought something with him out of Black Mesa, and they were now in a position to use it. Some kind of superweapon, or something.

A thought suddenly struck him, so that he had to stop, his mouth open behind his mask. Citizens edged away nervously, but he ignored them. How had Eli managed to contact Gordon after seemingly being out of touch for such a length of time, and how had they known that he was going to arrive on this exact train? Speaking of which, Barney suddenly noticed a lone figure in blue overalls standing next to the only train that ever left City 17… How typical of Gordon to choose the absolute worst place to stand in the whole station. Barney strode over and placed his hand firmly on his friend's shoulder. He had to act as if he didn't know who he was and didn't care, and would beat him as soon as look at him.

"You, citizen. Come with me." Gordon whirled around, eyes wide, mouth slightly open. He had in fact aged well, looking barely a day older than the last time Barney saw him. There was nothing but confusion in his eyes. Barney frowned. Most citizens would be panicking by this point and frantically protesting their innocence, but Gordon seemed almost catatonic. And he didn't just look similar to the last time Barney had seen him - he looked exactly the same. There was something going on that Barney didn't understand, but there was no time to waste; he could hear the low musical tone of approaching scanners. He gestured roughly with his baton, indicating Gordon should walk ahead of him. There was a look of utter bewilderment on his friend's face. Barney's heart sank. Gordon must have so many questions, and Barney had just realised he wasn't going to be able to answer any of them.


End file.
